NEW YORK — Twitter has redefined the way we communicate, get news and share tidbits of our lives.

It has even been credited with starting a revolution or two. The company, based in San Francisco, announced Thursday that it intends to sell stock to the public for the first time. Naturally, it did it via a tweet.

Here are some quick facts about Twitter in 140 characters or less, the limit of tweets.

— MT @Twitter We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.

— #FunFact: In the first hour of @Twitter sending that IPO announcement tweet, 7,872 people retweeted the message.

— According to @APStylebook: "The verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet."

— The company was founded 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their handles: @Jack, @Biz and @Ev

— First tweet by @Jack was "just setting up my twttr" on March 21, 2006, at 3:50 p.m.

— Dorsey went on to create @Square, a system for paying for coffee, goods through phones.

— Twitter soared to popularity in 2007 at the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. #sxswinteractive #Austin #BBQ

— Three years, two months and one day: The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet. #CoolStat

— Users on @Twitter: More than 200 million. @Facebook has 1.16 billion. That's nearly six times as many. #QuickMath

— A billion tweets are sent every two and a half days. Put another way, that's three for every man, woman and child in the U.S. via @smfrogers

— The public offering comes at a time of heightened investor interest in the IPO market — 131 IPOs have priced so far this year.

— Is @Twitter trying to avoid @Facebook's May 2012 IPO #fail? Well, company is keeping details secret for now. #TwitterIPO

— The company hasn't said if it makes a profit or how much revenue it takes in. #FadOrFuture? Wonder if @WarrenBuffett will buy stock.

— Most of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising. @eMarketer estimates $582.8 million this year, up from $288.3 million in 2012.